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13 September 2004
Ectus gets $1.2 million injection
Endeavour Capital and software developer Ectus.
Wellington fund manager Endeavour Capital has pumped $1.2 million into Hamilton software developer Ectus in return for about 30 per cent of the company.
The venture capital investment was completed with one third co-funding from the Government's Venture Investment Fund, meaning the New Zealand public now effectively has a 10 per cent stake in the business.
Ectus, which was spawned from Waikato University's Waikato Innovation Centre, employs 14 staff and specialises in developing video-conferencing software for use in online education and other fields.
Endeavour chairman Neville Jordan says the company has developed "unique and novel" technology which lets the people who take part in a video-conference record and index events that take place during the conference.
Participants could, for example, go back and view the video-conference from the point at which a particular power-point slide was displayed or from when they annotated a comment using their keyboard.
"No one else has been able to achieve that."
Mr Jordan says Waikato University uses the company's technology and he says Ectus is "reasonably close" to quite large sales in the US, "not just for education but in the corporate sector".
The company will be officially unveiled by Science Minister Pete Hodgson this week.
Its chief executive is former Waikato University IT director Mark Topping.
Mr Jordan says Endeavour has been one of the most active VIF fund managers to date.
Its other investments include stakes in Wellington superconductor manufacturer HTS-110, Auckland hi-tech mapping company Geosmart and biotech firm Proacta.
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